The Boston Musical Intelligencer

If you read my previous post about the demise of the Boston Globe Calendar section, you are aware that the listing and reporting of classical music events in the Boston area has grown scant. However I am glad to report that there is hope on the horizon. Like a Phoenix out of the ashes, the Boston Musical Intelligencer has entered onto the scene in an effort to fill the current void in cultural reporting.

Their "mission statement" reads as follows...

Our aim with The Musical Intelligencer is to list every classical music concert in greater Boston. We also intend to review as many as possible, especially those deemed most important and unjustly neglected by our editors. Our reviewers are to be drawn from Boston’s most distinguished musicians and musical academics under the leadership of Robert Levin. We invite participation from readers and experts.

Describing themselves as "a virtual journal and blog of the classical music scene in Boston" they go on to explain their raison d'être...

Many of us today rue the general decline in musical culture and literacy. In a small way we propose to reverse that trend with an online virtual journal and blog called The Boston Musical Intelligencer. If you have looked in the Boston Globe or Boston Phoenix calendars for guidance on what concert to attend, or looked in those papers for a review of a concert you have attended, you will no doubt share our frustration. Although what coverage there is in these papers is estimable, there is not enough of it. Due to limitations of staff and ink, probably fewer than 10 percent of the area’s concerts are reviewed and probably fewer than one half are listed.

I have added The Boston Musical Intelligencer to my favorites list and will consult it religiously for concert listings and music reviews. I do not intend to compete with the professional and authoritative writing likely to permeate their site, but will probably persist in speaking out loud on this blog about my perceptions of the Boston new music scene through the biased perspective of a "local composer." But there is certainly hope and encouragement to be found within the new "rag" in town, and I welcome it to the blogosphere.

Link: http://classical-scene.com/

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